Celebrities Reveal Surprising Pasts
A glimpse into the secret, often haunting pasts of celebrities.
Sept. 24, 2009 -- Just when you thought nothing could surprise you. In her new book, "High on Arrival," Mackenzie Phillips claims that she had a sexual relationship with her father, John Phillips, who was a member of the '60s Mamas and the Papas band." Phillips, who starred on the TV show "One Day At a Time," writes in the book that she had sex with her father the night before her wedding in 1979 to Rolling Stones entourage member Jeff Sessler. She says the sexual relationship with her father continued for years after that first night which she called "rape."
"My father was not a man with boundaries. He was full of love, and he was sick with drugs. I woke up that night from a blackout to find myself having sex with my own father," she writes in the book. Phillips also appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to discuss her relationship with her father, who died in 2001. She told Winfrey that her father also shot her up with heroin. Phillips has struggled with drug addiction in the past and was arrested last year for cocaine and heroin possession at Los Angeles International Airport. She pleaded guilty, and was ordered to enter a drug rehabilitation center.
Phillips' bombshell is just the latest in a long line of celebrity revelations. Here are some of the most shocking.
Anne Heche
Anne Heche's book "Call Me Crazy" explains many of the actress' low points in her life. She claims that the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her father Donald Heche caused her to escape to a "fourth dimension." "I'm not crazy," Heche told Barbara Walters in a "20/20" interview. "But it's a crazy life. I was raised in a crazy family and it took 31 years to get the crazy out of me." She described the abuse from her father, saying, "He raped me ... he fondled me, he put me on all fours and had sex with me." She qualified the abuse by saying it is only "in my memory."
Her mother Nancy Heche responded to her daughter's accusations on a Web Site called Previewport.com, saying, "I am trying to find a place for myself in this writing, a place where I as Anne's mother do not feel violated or scandalized. I find no place among the lies and blasphemies in the pages of this book." Heche claims that as a result of the alleged abuse, she developed an alter ego, which she called Celestia, whom she believed was a reincarnation of God. "You name it, I could do it. I could see into the future. I could heal people," Heche told Walters. "I don't know where it came from. I was, in my mind, learning it from God." Heche believes that the memoir helped to bring her closure on many of the issues she faced in life. She says she wrote "Call Me Crazy" to say goodbye "once and for all, to my story of shame and embrace my life choice of love."
Rosie O'Donnell
Rosie O'Donnell shocked many when she revealed that she used to break her bones as a child with baseball bats or hangars. In her memoir "Celebrity Detox," she writes "[I broke] my hands and fingers usually. No one knew. It was a secret."
She explains she did it because it was "proof I had some value, enough to be fixed."
She also writes about the fear of abandonment she experienced after her mother Roseann died of breast cancer when O'Donnell was 10 years old. O'Donnell also released a part-memoir, part-mystery book called "Find Me" in 2002. The book delves into O'Donnell's troubled childhood, as well as her relationship with a woman suffering from multiple personality disorder. I was an abused kid," she writes. "This is something I've chosen not to dwell on in my public life. It sounds trite, like an 'ET' sound bite. However, sometimes you can't escape a cliche. So yes, I have been abused," she told Diane Sawyer in an interview.
Barry Williams
Barry Williams, known as Greg Brady on "The Brady Bunch," revealed in his book "Growing Up Brady" that he went on a date with his TV mom Florence Henderson when he was 15 to the Coconut Club in Los Angeles. "I could've ended up writing a book that was about as interesting as the Brady shows themselves,'' he told Entertainment Weekly.com. ''But there is drama, there is conflict." Henderson, who was married at the time, has publicly stated that the date was platonic. "When I wrote the book, I was very specific about how the date was because I felt it was a very significant part of my growing up … I definitely, definitely was on the make for my television Mom. But she, on the other hand was, I think, flattered by the attention and great innocence attached to it. I think she could see my struggles as a teenage kid, there was no doubt that she was married, had four children of her own, and the relationship -- despite what I wanted and where I wanted it to go -- was never going to go anywhere," he said on his Web Site Barry Williams.com.
He also claims he went on a date with TV sister Maureen McCormick as well. "Maureen and I dated on and off from year three through year five. We liked each other, trusted each other and of course it was convenient. It got kinda weird, though, because of all the people, parents, producers being around all the time, not to mention the roles we played," he said.
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